Multi-disciplinary approaches to adoption support and multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) have been developing within the context of regional adoption agencies (RAAs) over the last 8-9 years. ‘Early adopter’ MDTs are now becoming more embedded in One Adoption West Yorkshire (OAWY) and Adoption Counts (AC) and ‘second wave sites’ are starting to be implemented in 7 other RAA or pan-regional sites in England this year.

This mixed methods evaluation commissioned by Adoption England from the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University and the University of East Anglia seeks to explore (2023-2025):
•The feasibility of implementing multi-disciplinary approaches to adoption support – from the perspectives of both early adopters and second wave sites.
•The actual or potential benefits, including where possible costed benefits, of implementing multi-disciplinary approaches and teams.
•Which outcomes and outcome measures are important to use in this context.

Early (end of year one) findings summarised for the report linked below have been generated from a range of evaluation activities including theory of change (development) work and allied support for data capture and analysis involving all sites. More in-depth evidence has been generated from the early adopter sites via independently captured via qualitative interviews and a longitudinal survey.